Who Uses Online Dating?

There are more reasons to use a dating app than just casual sex or a serious relationship as many people falsely believe. Its possible that people may use tinder to find a long-term romantic connection (Love), to have casual sex or hookups, because it’s easier than face-to-face interaction (ease of communication), to boost their self-esteem (self-worth validation), because they’re curious and excited about the idea of dating online (thrill of excitement), or because it is a novel concept that peers are using (trendiness) (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2017). When we take these take these possible motivations and compare them to people’s personality traits, age, and gender, the characteristics of an online dater become clearer.

Age:

Tinder and online dating sites require that the user must be 18 years or older. It is the most popular in young people from 18-24 (Smith and Anderson, 2016).  In fact, half of people (53%) who are under the age of thirty have used a dating app or site, and of that 53%, 79% reported that Tinder had been one of them. Overall, of everyone who has online dated, 46% have used Tinder at some point (Voguls and McCain 2023).

Gender:

 Gender also changes how or if one uses a dating app or site. Overall, men use dating sites more than women do, and they are more active in approaching a partner than women are. They are also more likely to not have children and be religious (Erevik et al 2020). Men and older users are more likely to use the app for love, casual sex, and ease of communication.  Men are also more interested in using dating apps for casual sex purposes. Though overall, love is the strongest motivation to use dating apps for anyone (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2017). Motivation to use dating apps comes from validating self worth is more common in women than men (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2017)

Personality:

Personality may also predict why or if someone uses a dating app. People who are motivated to use dating apps because of their thrill of excitement are more likely to have sensation-seeking traits, and to be sexually permissive (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2018).. Those who use the app for casual sex are more also more likely to be sexually permissive (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2018).. Having dating anxiety reduces the likelihood that a person even uses dating apps at all, and being sexually permissive does the opposite, indicating that more sexually permissive people use dating apps (Sumter and Vandenbosch, 2018). On the Big Five personality scale, users scored higher on agreeableness, extraversion, and lower on openness, as well having as more anxiety symptoms than non-users. Users were also more likely to report alcohol and substance abuse than on-users (Erevik et al 2020).